Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Dhoni's time is up-M. Amarnath Said

Previous cricketer and selector Mohinder Amarnath feels that MS Dhoni's time to be in the Test team is up, lending his voice to rising demand for the wicketkeeper-batsman’s removal from the team.

The 62-year old who was removed from India’s selection committee reportedly after asking for Dhoni’s sacking, aired his views on Times Now.

If you see his track record for the last one year, he has done well in ODI cricket, but in Tests he has not led from front, said Amarnath, who had played 69 Tests and 85 ODIs for India. As a captain, your place should be protected. I don’t see that for Dhoni.

I am not against Dhoni. I like the guy. But we should look at it from a broader viewpoint. It is main to look at Now performance of players rather than past performances. Amarnath revealed Dhoni's series was discussed earlier this year. Without naming anybody, Amarnath said there was accord regarding this. But the decision wasn't followed through.

There was a discussion to replace Dhoni with somebody else. People had settled to do that. But for some reason did not do it. When asked about who was putting the force on retaining Dhoni, Amarnath retreat saying, that is an internal matter. I cannot speak about it at the moment.

Throwing his weight behind Amarnath was another former selector, C Raja Venkat, who represented the East Zone in the Krishnamachari Srikkanth-led selection committee.

There are better wicketkeeper batsmen in the country. Dhoni doesn’t merit a place in the Test side. Still his captaincy is under question, Venkat said. Dhoni too hails from the East Zone.